US Student with PR card - Filing in -

I am trying to help a friend to determine if she needs to file
Canadian taxes in addition to the taxes she paid in the US for tax year
2007. The relevant stats:

1. She is a permanent resident of Canada, although she holds a
xxxxxxxx passport (I believe she is considered a landed immigrant in
the US)

2. She has been living in the US since 2002 as a student on a
F-1 visa (initially for undergrad and now in law school)

3. She maintains no residence or dwelling place in Canada, has
no personal property there, no spouse or dependents there, no political
or professional affilations, has not returned to Canada in about 3
years but does have an old savings account in canada from 2002 with
around $2K in it and has an old Canadian drivers license.

4. For 2007, she is filing as a resident in the US as she as
more than 5 years as a student here and so can no longer file as a
nonresident alien...her AGI was around 36K (which was from an
internship at a law firm this summer) and she paid about 5K in US
Federal and another 2.5K in NY state taxes this year.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated as I have read the
various Canadian residency guidelines and it seems far more art than
science in determining whether you are considered a resident of Canada
for tax purposes and hence required to file there as well as the US.

Thank you in advance,

xxxxx

--------------------------------------------
david ingram replies:

Seems to me that a law student should be figuring this out themselves.

As described, it is unlikely that she is a landed immigrant int he USA.

However, as described, she has likely lost her Permanent residence
status in Canada unless she is married to a Canadian and living in the
US with that Canadian spouse. To maintain her right to renew her PR
card, she has to:

1. have lived in Canada for 2 out of the last five years to
maintain her right to a card

2. have lived in the US (or any other country) with a Canadian spouse

3. being working in the US for a Canadian company as the result of a
transfer from Canada to the US (or any other country).

Nothing you have described makes her a taxable resident of Canada.

I am also willing to have someone point me to a section that allows her
to keep her card as a student.

Note that your friend does not cease to be a Permanent Resident because
her card has expired. She is just a Permanent resident with an expired
card. When she comes to the border to Canada, she does NOT have to
answer any questions about how long she has been gone if she is not
bringing 'any' goods back with her. They might make it uncomfortable
for her but if she has her driver's licence and has actually filed tax
returns and has them with her, the border people must let her in as i
understand the situation.

She should 'likely' file Canadian returns if she wants to maintain her
status but she is not legally obligated to as explained in your
question. Others may have different opinions and I will pass along
any that seem relevant.

She can also just abandon Canada and apply again if she so desires. If
that is her desire, she should send her card back and start another
application now. That would give her 3 or 4 more years before she
would have to take up her status.
--------------------------------------------

On April 6. 2008, David
Ingram wrote:

It is very unlikely that blind or unexpected email to me will be
answered. I receive anywhere from 100 to 700 unsolicited emails a day
and usually answer anywhere from 2 to 20 if they are not from existing
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not look at it every day and have never ever looked at it when I am out
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However, I regularly search for the words"PAYING
CUSTOMER" and always answer them first if they did not get spammed out.
For the last two weeks, I have just found out that my own email notes
to myself have been spammed out and as an example, as I wrote this on
Dec 25, 2007 since June 16th, my 'spammed out' box has
47,941 unread messages, my deleted box has 16645 I have actually looked
at and deleted and I have actually answered 1234 email questions for
clients and strangers without sending a bill. I have also put aside
847 messages that I am maybe going to try and answer because they look
interesting. -e bankruptcy expert US Canada Canadian American
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Therefore, if an email is not answered in 24 to
48 hours, it is likely lost in space.
You can try and resend it but if important AND YOU TRULY WANT OR NEED
AN ANSWER from 'me', you will have to phone to make an appointment.
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David Ingram
gives expert income tax service & immigration help to non-resident
Americans & Canadians from New York to California to Mexico
family, estate, income trust trusts Cross border, dual citizen - out of
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Phone consultations
are $450 for 15 minutes to 50 minutes (professional hour). Please note
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Income Tax service and help.

This is not intended to be definitive
but in general I am quoting $900 to $3,000 for a dual country tax
return.

$900 would be one T4 slip one W2 slip
one or two interest slips and you lived in one country only (but were
filing both countries) - no self employment or rentals or capital gains
- you did not move into or out of the country in this year.

$1,200 would be the same with one
rental

$1,300 would be the same with one
business no rental

$1,300 would be the minimum with a
move in or out of the country. These are complicated because of the
back and forth foreign tax credits. - The IRS says a foreign tax credit
takes 1 hour and 53 minutes.

$1,600 would be the minimum with a
rental or two in the country you do not live in or a rental and a
business and foreign tax credits no move in or out

$1,700 would be for two people with income from two countries

$3,000 would be all of the above and
you moved in and out of the country.

This is just a guideline for US /
Canadian returns

We will still prepare Canadian only
(lives in Canada, no US connection period) with two or three slips and
no capital gains, etc. for $200.00 up.

With a Rental for $400, two or three
rentals for $550 to $700 (i.e. $150 per rental) First year Rental -
plus $250.

A Business for $400 - Rental and
business likely $550 to $700

And an American only (lives in the US
with no Canadian income or filing period) with about the same things in
the same range with a little bit more if there is a state return.

Moving in or out of the country or
part year earnings in the US will ALWAYS be $900 and up.

TDF 90-22.1 forms are $50 for the
first and $25.00 each after that when part of a tax return.

8891 forms are generally $50.00 to
$100.00 each.

18 RRSPs would be $900.00 - (maybe
amalgamate a couple)

Capital gains *sales) are likely
$50.00 for the first and $20.00 each after that.

Catch - up returns for the US where we use the
Canadian return as a guide for seven years at a time will be from $150
to
$600.00 per year depending upon numbers of bank accounts, RRSP's,
existence of rental houses, self employment, etc. Note that these
returns tend to be informational rather than taxable. In fact, if
there are children involved, we usually get refunds of $1,000 per child
per year for 3 years. We have done several catch-ups where the client
has received as much as $6,000 back for an $1,800 bill and one recently
with 6 children is resulting in over $12,000 refund.

This is a
guideline not etched in stone. If you do
your own TDF-90 forms, it is to your advantage. However, if we put them
in the first year, the computer carries them forward beautifully.

David Ingram expert income tax service and immigration help and
preparation of US Canada Mexico
non-resident and cross border returns with rental dividend wages
self-employed and royalty foreign tax credits family estate trust trusts
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